The Big Speech

My piece about media coverage of and reaction to Obama's acceptance speech last night is now up at The Guardian's Comment is free America:

Joe Biden takes the stage. I think there may be more people in the stadium than in the entire state of Delaware. He's loving it. He ends his speech, Rat Pack-like, with "Love ya!" which I have to say I much prefer to "God Bless You." "Love ya!" has some real bada-bing.

Filler, filler. Now the gang at MSNBC are pouring over the speech excerpts, and, while they're doing a better job than the loathsome Morris, it's still painful. If Nora O'Donnell refers to the "optics of this event" one more time, I'll go on a killing spree. It's nonetheless an improvement on what's going down at Fox, where they're rehashing "the Jeremiah Wright scandal" and Brit Hume begrudgingly admits that Mile-High Stadium is "pretty full." It's full metal crazy over there.

Finally, at long last, the senior senator from Illinois, Dick Durbin, comes out to introduce Obama, and we are moments away from the Big Speech. Jitter. Durbin's followed by a bio piece about Obama and his family, which is very nice.

And then Obama comes out.

Cameras flash like frenzied lightning bugs and the crowd roars. The staging is amazing. It is truly worthy of the historic moment to which we're all bearing witness – this is an African-American man who has is accepting the nomination for the presidency by the Democratic party. Wow. I am without cynicism or snark. I am awed.

I listen to the speech.

Read the whole thing here.